Mike said solemnly with excitement on his face: "Dear commander-in-chief, you have made the greatest and most correct decision!" I completely agree with your arrangement, I will sign the document today, I will work hard for the Fourth Route Army with all my heart, I will let the Air Force of the Fourth Route Army work miracles, it will definitely become one of the greatest air forces in the world. ”

After Guo Wenyuan translated Mike's words to Wu Jin, Wu Jin smacked his lips, looked at Mike and said, "Wenyuan, this foreigner really dares to say it, and he has no self-effacing consciousness at all. ”

Guo Wenyuan said with a smile: "Foreigners are all faulty, modesty is hypocrisy in their eyes, and they will never do this." ”

Song Zhewu was very happy to successfully recruit an experienced air force commander like Mike, which is equivalent to his young air force already at the senior command level, with more than 20 years of flying experience, in this sense, the starting point of his air force is still very high, and it is no longer inferior to the air forces of other countries outside Europe. What this young air force lacks now is the pilot's flight experience, which needs to be continuously accumulated and sublimated in training.

Song Zhewu was amused by Mike's expression and said: "Colonel Harris, what you said is very right, I also think that I have made a great decision, I believe that under the leadership of Commander Wu and you, the deputy commander, our air force will grow as soon as possible." However, you can't just teach them how to fly, it's just one of your tasks, there's a more important task for you, which is to design our own fighters and bombers. Wang Zhu, who was the first chief engineer of the Boeing Company of the United States, will soon come to Laiyuan, and Wang Zhu, you, and Wen Yuan will form the team of our Fourth Route Army to design new aircraft, and make preliminary preparations for our Fourth Route Army to have its own advanced aircraft. I believe that with you, the man who designed the DH-10, the greatest bomber of the twenties, to design our own aircraft, our new aircraft will be the best. ”

Mike blushed with excitement and said with trembling lips: "Commander-in-chief, if I heard me correctly, you mean that the DH-10 was the greatest bomber of the twenties?" ”

"Yes, the DH-10 is one of the greatest and best bombers since its inception and to this day, I am convinced of that. He is very good, even the best, in terms of speed, range, and bomb load, and although it has been ten years, its comprehensive surname energy indicators are still very prominent. ”

Mike rubbed his hands together excitedly and said, "Commander-in-chief, although you are not a general of the Air Force, you know more about airplanes than those self-righteous old diehards in the Royal Air Force, and you have more vision than them. DH-10 not only has the advantages that the commander-in-chief said, but it also has very good low-altitude, ultra-low-altitude stability surnames and longitudinal surnames; There is a good lower horizon, which is convenient for searching for small concealed targets on the ground; The vital parts of the aircraft are protected by armor, and the survivability is very strong under ground artillery fire; The take-off and landing surname can be excellent, and it can take off and land at an airstrip close to the front line. After many years of development, I dare not say that the DH-10 is still the best bomber, and I am very grateful to the commander-in-chief for his evaluation of it, but in terms of low-altitude bombing, I dare to say that the DH-10 is still the best bomber. ”

Song Zhewu has some understanding of the low-altitude surname of the DH-10, and some people in later generations even compare it with the Stuka dive bomber used by Germany in World War II, thinking that although the DH-10 can not compare with the Stuka, his low-altitude penetration ability is very strong, as long as some armor protection is appropriately added, it is a very good attack aircraft. When Song Zhewu bought it at that time, he had the intention of changing it into a strong attack aircraft to give the DH-10 a new lease of life.

Song Zhewu nodded and said: "Listening to you, the designer, I am more at ease with the surname of the DH-10, I have an idea, and I ask you, the designer, to see if it is feasible?" ”

Seeing that Harris, Guo Wenyuan, and Wu Jin all listened attentively to him, Song Zhewu searched for the concept of a strong attack aircraft that only appeared in the 50s in his memory, and said: "Today's bombers are required to fly high, fly fast, and fly far. At high altitudes and high speeds, the accuracy of high-altitude bombing is not high, or even very poor, due to the failure of the aiming equipment. It is suitable only for bombing cities, large fortresses, positions, etc., and is almost powerless against attacks on ground marching troops, artillery positions, command posts, small defensive positions and vehicles. To meet the needs of attacking small ground targets, it is necessary to have an aircraft with good low-altitude capability, and the DH-10 happens to have this capability. In the past ten years, due to the progress of technology, the DH-10 has been a little backward as a bomber, but since it is already an aircraft of our Fourth Route Army, we have the obligation to rejuvenate it. ”

Song Zhewu looked at Mike, who was a little puzzled, and said: "I mean, the air force of our Fourth Route Army does not need to bomb large targets such as cities for the time being, and the task that our air force needs to complete in 10 years will be to accurately and fiercely attack small enemy targets on the ground." Therefore, although the DH-10 used to be a very good bomber, in order to meet our needs, we also needed to make the necessary improvements to it. ”

Song Zhewu was afraid that Mike would have ideas, so he said to him: "With the development of the times and the progress of technology, any excellent aircraft will fall behind at some point, which I think Colonel Harris should understand." ”

No matter how good the DH-10 was at the time, after all, it was designed more than ten years ago, and the technology is much more advanced now than it was then. Comparing the DH-10 with the current bomber, it still lacks some surnames. Although the DH-10 is his proudest work to date, Mike knows it.

Therefore, he does not object to the idea of improving the DH-10 that Song Zhewu said, and even he looks forward to making his DH-10 really rejuvenate and make the DH-10 famous in the world on the basis of the DH-10 prototype and through improvement.

"Although I designed the DH-10, I'm very proud of him," he said with a smile. However, after all, it is an old model from ten years ago, and it has fallen behind in some surnames. I very much agree with the commander-in-chief that the DH-10 must be improved, otherwise our Fourth Route Army Air Force will not use the best aircraft now. The DH-10 not only has the advantages just mentioned, but it also has many advantages, such as its longitudinal flexibility is very flexible, as long as some adjustments are made in the empty weight and engine, it can even be used as a fighter; He also has one of the most prominent characteristics, that is, its dive angle can reach almost 90 °C, it can not only force penetration at low altitude, but also can dive and bomb at a large angle after entering the local position at high altitude. ”

Mike regretted: "Because of the power of the engine at the time, he still had a lot of life that he didn't play." Commander-in-chief, please believe me, Guo and I can make the best plane! ”

Song Zhewu nodded, he also knew the advantages of these DH-10 mentioned by Mike, but it was not as detailed as Mike said. However, he didn't just want to make more advanced aircraft on the basis of the DH-10, he also had to make good use of the DH-10 in his hands, if he only used the DH-10 as a bomber, it would be a bit of a tyrannical thing.

Song Zhewu said to Mike: "We have an old Chinese saying, that is, to promote the strengths and avoid the weaknesses, which means to avoid using and promoting the shortcomings of a person or an object, and give full play to its advantages and strengths, so as to maximize its advantages." Since the DH-10 is a bit outdated as a bomber, we need to avoid using it only as a bomber. Since it has a very strong penetration capability, has a very good low-altitude, ultra-low-altitude stability and longitudinal surname, has a good downward vision, and is convenient for searching for small concealed targets on the ground, then we must give full play to its advantages, and after making appropriate improvements, it can become a capability designed for forcibly breaking through and attacking small targets on the ground. ”

Mike lowered his head and thought for a while, then suddenly raised his head and said: "Commander-in-chief, you are very right, in high-altitude bombing, because the current optical and mechanical aiming equipment are not accurate enough, it is indeed difficult to accurately bomb ground targets. According to the commander-in-chief, it is necessary to give full play to the low-altitude breakthrough ability of the DH-10 and mainly bomb small ground targets? ”

"Yes, but not just bombing, but also attacking ground targets, to be exact, and equipping them with aerial guns."

Mike hesitated, but said, "A bomber with an aerial gun is not a bomber?" ”

"Yes, after such a transformation, he is no longer a bomber in the traditional sense, such an aircraft should be divided into a separate category, I think such an aircraft should be distinguished from a bomber and a fighter, it should be called a strike aircraft." Song Zhewu looked at Mike and said.

"Strike machine?" Mike was stunned for a moment, then quickly waved his hand again and exclaimed excitedly, "Oh my God! Commander-in-chief, you know? You've created a whole new type of machine, the Strike Machine. Strike machine, the name is so apt, if I understand correctly, it should mean forcible attack, right? ”

Seeing Song Zhewu nodding with a smile, Mike said happily: "Commander-in-chief, if you want to reflect your tactical intentions, then this DH-10 needs to be improved somewhat." ”

"Oh, how to improve? Originally, Song Zhewu wanted to tell him the method of improvement, but seeing that Mike had understood the concept of the attack aircraft, he immediately thought of making improvements, and he really wanted to hear the improvement opinions of the designers of the DH-10, because only the people who knew the DH-10 best, and the improvement suggestions he proposed were the most pertinent.

Mike impatiently pulled Song Zhewu to a table next to him, picked up the pen and paper on the table, and quickly drew with a brush. Wu Jin and Guo Wenyuan also followed, gathered around the table, and looked at Mike.

Mike quickly drew a sketch of the DH-10 very skillfully, pointed to the sketch and said to Song Zhewu: "According to the commander-in-chief's wishes, we will add aircraft guns to it." ”

Mike said as he drew an airplane gun on the nose of the plane. "In my experience, its cannon should be a 23mm caliber cannon. The mouth of the cannon is small and the power is insufficient; If the caliber is too large, the amount of ammunition carried is bound to be small, and if you attack the target of the ground personnel, the attack time will be short, and the firepower will be insufficient. The 23mm caliber aircraft gun is just in between, Curtis has done experiments, when dealing with artillery positions, firing in a dive at an angle greater than 45 °C, except for the gun carriage and body barrel, hitting other parts can cause damage to the artillery, so that it can not fire normally; Attacking ground armored targets, he can easily penetrate the upper armor of any current armored target; Attacks on other targets on the ground are also extremely powerful. Moreover, the 23mm cannon Curtis company has a very good product. ”

Song Zhewu nodded in agreement with Mike's statement, he knew that in the twenties, with the emergence of tanks and other armored vehicles, all countries have put a lot of effort into aviation artillery, and the caliber is getting larger and larger, and the largest caliber has reached a terrifying 102mm. Such as the Italian piaggop.108a. It was a large modern four-engine bomber similar to the B-17, but due to the limited strength of Italy, only a small number of Piaggop.108A were built and equipped with only 1 strategic bomber squadron of the Italian Air Force. Piaggop.108A installed a 102-mm naval gun in the nose with a downward angle of fire. With the addition of the anti-recoil system, the total weight of the gun does not exceed 1500 kg, the artillery has 50 rounds of ammunition, and the total weight of ammunition is 1 ton.

It's just that the amount of ammunition used by large-caliber aircraft guns is limited, and there are not many targets that must be attacked, so large-caliber aircraft guns will gradually be eliminated. The use of 20mm-37mm caliber guns will gradually become the mainstream.

Wu Jin pointed to the aircraft gun on the sketch drawn by Mike and asked strangely: "The aircraft gun is installed here, won't it hit the propeller when it is designed?" ”

When Guo Wenyuan was translating to Mike, Song Zhewu couldn't help but explain to Wu Jin, a "plane blind": "If you don't take measures, of course the bullet will hit the propeller." In order to avoid hitting the propeller, the "deflector system" was used in the early days, that is, a steel plate was installed on the propeller blades to deflect the warhead that hit it. This device allows a bullet fired from a machine gun mounted along the longitudinal axis of the aircraft to be deflected when it hits the propeller blades.

At the beginning of World War I, with the development of the equipment and technology and tactics of the aviation units of various countries, machine guns replaced the "attack weapons" with a very personal color on the early airplanes. But the rotating surface of the propeller became a major obstacle to machine gun fire. At that time, there were two solutions: one was to mount the machine gun above the wing and avoid the propeller rotating propeller surface, such as the Newport 11 "Baby" biplane fighter developed by the French Newport company installed a longitudinally fixed machine gun on the upper wing surface; The other is with a pusher propeller layout, such as the British Vickers F.B.5 fighter. However, the first measure is not conducive to the pilot's aiming and shooting, and the second is due to the inherent defects of the layout, which seriously affects the aircraft's ability to take on the surname. Therefore, these aircraft, although they use machine guns for air combat, are not yet real fighters.

Later the Dutchman Anthony. Fokker invented the "machine gun firing coordinator", which can ensure that the projectiles fired by the aircraft guns and machine guns pass through the middle of the blades of the propeller and will never hit its own propeller. The Coordinator was first mounted on the Fokker E.3 fighter, which caused a large number of Allied air forces to be shot down, in what became known as the "Fokker Disaster". When Wu Jin didn't seem to understand, and was still trying his best to understand, Mike and Guo Wenyuan were already dumbfounded. What surprised them was that although Song Zhewu studied in Germany, after all, he studied army tactics and should not be so familiar with the Air Force.

Song Zhewu also noticed the demeanor of the two, and knew that he was a little too pretentious, so he hurriedly said to Mike: "You still continue to talk about how to improve the DH-10, right?" ”

Mike, who came back to his senses, shook his head, sorted out his thoughts, and then said: "Since it is going to break into the enemy's position at a low altitude to attack, it will inevitably be attacked by the enemy's ground weapons, and in order to resist this attack and ensure that the aircraft is not greatly damaged, it needs the necessary armor protection. DH-10 has protection only in the belly, not only its protective steel plate is thin, but also its protective area is not enough. The front of the fuselage of such an aircraft must be equipped with bulletproof steel plates to completely protect the engine, fuel tank, and pilot from small-caliber bullets. ”

As he spoke, Mike used his pencil to blacken out the areas he thought needed protection.

While everyone was looking at his sketches, Mike added: "But in this way, the empty weight of the plane will increase significantly, which will inevitably affect his bomb load, and directly lead to a decrease in its attack power." Looks like we're going to have to redesign a new plane. ”

Song Zhewu looked at Mike and said, "In order to fully meet the requirements of ground attack, it is necessary to redesign a new aircraft." It's just that you don't forget, this is Asia, not Europe. In Asia, the armies of all countries, including the Japanese Army, do not have a large number of anti-aircraft weapons, and even this situation will not change significantly in a short period of time. Therefore, before we design a new aircraft, we can first modify the DH-10, and the front armor added to it does not need to be very thick, as long as it can ensure that it will not be penetrated by a 10mm bullet. As for the reduction of bomb load, there is no way to do it, we can appropriately reduce the space of the magazine, bring more ammunition for aircraft guns, and each aircraft can carry three hundred-pound bombs. ”

Mike thought for a while, then looked up and asked Song Zhewu, "How many planes like this do you need?" Is it all airplanes? ”

(To be continued)